


Weasels!

by HASA_Archivist



Category: The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: 3rd Age - The Stewards, General
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-19
Updated: 2007-10-06
Packaged: 2018-03-24 20:22:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3783138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HASA_Archivist/pseuds/HASA_Archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A much-maligned creature brings beauty to a much-maligned season.  Aragorn's POV, as a Ranger.  Drabble.</p><p>Happy birthday, lindahoyland!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Weasels!

**Author's Note:**

> Note from the HASA Transition Team: This story was originally archived at [HASA](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Henneth_Ann%C3%BBn_Story_Archive), which closed in February 2015. To preserve the archive, we began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in February 2015. We posted announcements about the move, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this author, please contact The HASA Transition Team using the e-mail address on the [HASA collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/hasa/profile).

The ruffians Aragorn hunted were skilled at covering their tracks, and the deep snow slowed the Ranger. But the ice-covered trees were delicate as elven songs.

Another little hunter peered out of a hole and bounded toward Aragorn, its sleek body moving as if it were gliding. It was beautiful, soft white against the snow's glistening white. It reared up on its two hind paws like a little Man to sniff the breeze.

A weasel, Aragorn thought. Whatever men said, these creatures fiercely fought Sauron's rodent minions. Aragorn opened his knapsack and tossed it a piece of smoked rabbit.

As it and the meat disappeared into a nearby den, Aragorn smiled.  



	2. Author's Notes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A much-maligned creature brings beauty to a much-maligned season. Aragorn's POV, as a Ranger. Drabble.

__The animal Aragorn encounters in "Weasels!" is the least weasel ( _Mustela nivalis nivalis_ ), shown in the photograph at left. As in the story, it will rear on its hind paws when curious. The least weasel is only white in winter; in the summer its back is brown (see below). A southern subspecies, the common weasel ( _Mustela nivalis rixosa_ ) is brown year-round and can be found as far south as Egypt. The least weasel can survive even in high arctic tundra, a climate too cold for almost any other animal.  Both the least and the common weasels occur naturally in Britain. 

This animal is the world's smallest true carnivore, and members of most populations would comfortably fit in Aragorn's footprint. Its diet is primarily mice, voles or lemmings, depending on the locality, and it is small enough to follow these animals into their burrows. When this food is scarce it can hunt rabbits 10 times its size, which it will 

defend against animals that are even larger. It may also eat birds and their eggs, reptiles, amphibians, invertebrates and occasionally berries. Because of this diet its population density tends to be low, and so it is seldom seen. Occasionally it will take poultry from farms; however, it is much more likely to protect crops by keeping rodent populations down. 

Weasels are not rodents, but are close relatives of otters. Like an otter, a weasel has a swift metabolism and seems to a human like "a sprite...a golden leaf upon a whirlwind" (Ermine's Nest webpage). Weasels and otters are more distant relatives of cats, dogs and bears. Both were persecuted by English gamekeepers, who also temporarily exterminated the pine marten and the polecat from England. Weasels, reproducing relatively quickly and being small enough to hide in the burrows of their prey, were able to maintain populations even in areas with many gamekeepers. However, the gamekeepers may have contributed to the use of the term "weasel" as a synonym for a sneaky, devious character. Many British animal stories, such as Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows and Brian Jacques' Redwall series, portray weasels as vicious, rapacious villains. This "character assassination," to quote from weasel biologist Carolyn King, even extends to some descriptions of the weasel's appearance:

"When the animal is glancing around with the neck stretched up and the flat triangular head bent forward...it is the image of a serpent" (McKnight, 1905).

In Tolkien canon, weasels are also juxtaposed with the villains--for example, goblins pursuing Bilbo and the dwarves through the orc-tunnel "ran forward, swift as weasels in the dark" (The Hobbit, "Over Hill and Under Hill"). However, individual weasels do not appear. The positive scene in "Weasels" is largely based on an anecdote from a 1999 edition of the Buffalo News:

"It was wintertime and the weasel was all white...remarkably handsome in that soft, pettable ermine coat and with a sleek body obviously built for speed.  Everything about it seemed miniaturized: tiny ears, tiny beads for eyes, tiny dachshund-like legs...It stopped only briefly, rose erect on its hind legs and then bounded off."

Gerry Rising, the author, concludes that "it is hard to believe that these are the same disreputable beasts that we met at the beginning of this column."  Colloquially, weasels are called "bonuca-mona-muca" (pretty little one) in Spanish.

Even in English literature, Alan Lloyd's novel Kine is about a weasel who heroically defends the English countryside against the invading mink ( _Mustela vison_ ).  I believe the depiction of weasels as staunch defenders of Middle-earth is canonical in spirit, and have portrayed the weasel as almost a miniature Ranger of the North.  Like Strider, the weasel is a solitary wanderer, misunderstood by many, that will not hesitate to fight against animals larger and more numerous than itself.  This individuality and courage, even in the midst of cold and adversity, is what Tolkien called "that noble northern spirit, a supreme contribution to Europe, which I have ever loved, and tried to present in its true light" (letter from J.R.R. Tolkien to Michael Tolkien, June 1941).

In my next installment I turn to a creature that has been more extensively discussed in canon.


End file.
